At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option."

Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts....

Luntz argued that "if you call it a 'public option,' the American people are split," but that "if you call it the 'government option,' the public is overwhelmingly against it." Luntz explained that the program would be "sponsored by the government" and falsely claimed that it would also be "paid for by the government."

Oh yeah, Fox News is SO BUSTED! If I could high-five the peeps over at Media Matters I would do it after they got done counting out the fingers they'd need to hold up.

Here's a deep thought: Like soylent green, the public is PEOPLE!!!

Actually, what they did on this issue isn't slanting news, it's slanting reality. If Fox News lived in it they would know that the other networks said "public option" because they understood that the government is just a spectator in the health care peepshow.

So there would be no need to lie about it being a government option...its a public option....paid for with tax money the government collects, and then distributes to the programs designed by it, administered by its employees, regulated by the government, and enforced by the honor system government.

That crazy right-wing cult Fox calls a news network should be ashamed of itself for dishonestly confusing the public into thinking their "option" had anything to do with the government.

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